Date Night
by danniisupernova
Summary: A 5 part followup to Of Bar Fights and White Knights. Jaylee.
1. Chapter 1

Mal had locked him in his bunk. They needed muscle on the job, but Jayne was too drunk to do anything but sit on his ass and stare at the walls. Kaylee had led him back to the ship, reeking of booze herself and almost an hour late. Mal's head had begun to hurt at that point, trying to think around these...set-backs. Kaylee had apologized over and over for being so late, saying it would look less suspicious now that they all hadn't disappeared from town in one big group. This had ebbed away at the pain slightly, but he was furious with Jayne for getting so all out, falling down, broken drunk.

The job would just have to go on without him.

When he woke up the air tasted horrible and hot, like somebody'd pissed in his mouth a few hours ago. His head felt like there was an exploded stick of dynamite in it and he barely made it to the sink before tossin up everything he'd eaten the night before. Some of it splashed out onto the floor and onto his boot. He couldn't quite conjure why he had been sleeping in his boots, but he was grateful not to have a big chunk of half digested whatever soaked in beer sitting on his sock or even better, his foot. He splashed water on his face and drank some as well, trying to get the hot feeling out of his mouth or slacken the pounding in his head.

He managed to get up the ladder to his door and opened it. The thud wracked his already scambled brain. He groaned.

There was a tray sitting next to the hatch. There was a pot of tea and a cup. But the best part was a bag full of sugar, as much sugar as he wanted. All of a sudden, his hangover didn't seem so bad.

Kaylee sat in the kitchen, Mal shoutin and yellin, just like she knew he would. He railed on about her listening to him, drinking, hanging out with the wrong folk and probably some other stuff too.

Her head hurt a little and she wished she'd stayed with the tea she'd left Jayne, to give him a little extra treat to go with the sugar she'd stolen out of Wash's food locker. She had thrown in most of her own and Book had contributed, though he wanted her to tell Jayne that it didn't mean that he endorsed his drinking to begin with. Kaylee knew that no matter how dark his past was, when it came to Jayne, Book was a big old softie.

Mal was just getting to the part of nice boys versus not so nice boys when Jayne flew the kitchen, still pulling up his pants, apparently not bothering to have taken off his boots first. "I'm here! I'm ready to get yelled at!" he said as he slid into the seat next to Kaylee. She looked at him with a shocked sort of half smile, trying very hard not to laugh. She whispered to him "What are you doing here?" "We have a date remember?" he whispered back.

Mal already looked like he was about to start screaming. "Oh you bet your dumb ass you're going to get yelled at! The job could have fallen through because of your fight with the i goddamned county sheriff's son! /i "

"Aw, Mal, he was trying to get in ta Kaylee's panties! He called her a drunk slut!" Jayne looked at him angrily. "What the hell would you have done?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure you didn't have to get so damned liquored up to play Prince Charming!" Kaylee had told him about this, but at the time he had brushed it off as some school girl fantasy wherein Kaylee had made him out to be some kind of hero. But if Jayne could remember it after being three sheets to the wind...well that lent credibility to the story.

As Mal continued to read the riot act, Kaylee leaned over to Jayne and whispered in his ear, "I think our date's goin good so far. How's the sobering up part comin?"


	2. Chapter 2

Kaylee lay under the engine, listening to the whinge in her ship. It had only been a few hours since Mal'd let her leave the kitchen. He'd continued to shout at Jayne and Kaylee had caught the bits of it. Something about seducing innocent girls. Kaylee giggled, wondering when it was Mal figured she was being innocent: initiating a bar fight or trying to pick up on the man who'd started it. i Not ta mention getting the guy who finished it too /i She quieted again, listening closely to her girl.

She could hear it, amidst all the perfectly fine noises, whingin' on about it's neglect. She could almost put her finger on it...yes, it was-

"Busy?"

Kaylee sat up in surprise, accidentally banging her head on the over-thruster. She cried out, putting her head to her forehead. She looked over to see Jayne filling up the doorway and looking awkwardly at his shoes. He looked up at the ruckus she'd made hitting her head. "Are you alright?"

Her hand still pressed firmly on her forehead, Kaylee wiggled out from beneath the engine. "I'm fine...I think."

"Let me take a look at it."

Jayne stepped forward and moved her hand away. There was a cut on her head and a bruise. He squinted at her, like she had a math problem written on her forehead. His look of deep concentration struck the little mechanic as i very /i funny and she started to laugh, even though it hurt her head.

"Wow, Jayne, you look like you're thinking harder then you have in your whole life!"

He straightened up, posturing like he was some fancy gentleman. "Am I enough like the Doc now for you to like me?" he said, adopting a pompous air and an affected expression of arrogance.

Kaylee's smile faded. "Twasn't the right thing to say Jayne. You and Simon...well, you's are like black and white ta me. Wouldn't want the two of ya ta mix."

Jayne looked at her curiously. "Well, ya don't need ta worry about anything like that. I'm too much fun to ever be anything like him."

She smiled at him again.

"So," he said. "You ready for our second date? Me, you, the medlab?" He offered her his arm, all dramatical like.

Kaylee giggled, taking his arm as they left the engine room.


	3. Chapter 3

Jayne sat by himself in the kitchen. Kaylee had let him escort her only so far as the top of the stairs near the infirmary before shooing him off. He'd almost forgotten how much she liked the doc after all the fun they'd been having.

He rummaged through Wash's food locker and, finding nothing satisfactory, slammed it shut with a sigh. He didn't know what the hell had gotten into him. Usually, a good job and a cut in spite of no work put him in a fine mood. But the thought of Kaylee and Simon all couple-y and together made him more then a little angry.

He sat down all in a huff, wondering why the hell he couldn't have just given Kaylee the stitches himself. He was fair handy with a needle and that was all it really was, wasn't it? Sewing people's skin? He drummed his fingers on a table trying to suss out a difference. Well shirts didn't bleed when you stitched them, did they? Jayne tried to recall an instance of any of his clothes bleeding when his ma mended them. Then he realized he was thinking complete rubbish.

While Jayne sat angrily thinking, Kaylee returned upstairs from the infirmary. She hadn't flirted at all with Simon and he hadn't seemed to notice. But it didn't bother her over much. They hadn't been getting on too well anyway.

It made her sad. Jayne was making it a little less bad by being there for her, always showing her a good time. Twas right nice of him, come to think of it. She headed over to her bunk, wanting something to cheer herself up.

She was puckish, and she'd been hiding some strawberries from their last stop in port. Now that she had more coin and Serenity was on her way to a new job (they had been right fruitful the last few weeks) she didn't have to worry about saving them for so long.

Kaylee pulled her little cooler out from underneath her bed. She wiggled her fanny with pleasure, finding all her strawberries looking right fine.

She glided up to the kitchen, remembering that Jayne was there, and intent on sharing the wealth.

Jayne was trying to figure how he'd come to imagining that the Doc was carrying a torch for either the Captain or Zoe. He was highly concentrated on trekking back through his thoughts, which seemed to be getting messier with every passing second.

He didn't notice Kaylee at all until she had sat down next to him and slid the box of berries his way.

He looked at her, surprised.

She smiled. "Want some?"

He took one and threw it in his mouth.

"Shouldn't you be sharing these with Simon or something? After all, he was the one that sewed up your head, 'stead of bangin it open."

She wrinkled her nose. "Why would I share these with Simon? He hates strawberry anything."

Jayne smiled at her. "Can't conjure a reason myself."


	4. Chapter 4

The work was good, easy and legal. A real peach of a job: New Canaan to Persephone, a huge shipment of brandy. To Jayne's mind it didn't get much better then that. Alcohol, no muss, no fuss. It was as if God himself was smiling down on Jayne these days. Kaylee and him were getting along swimmingly, Mal was in a good mood and jobs were steady.

It was in this mindset that he found Kaylee, sitting and looking awful sad behind a wood crate of the best brandy in the 'verse.

She had a book in hand and looked about ready to start crying. Jayne knew that she was hiding, for whatever reason, because she normally read books in her hammock in the engine room.

"Why ya hidin' Kaylee?" She looked up at him, startled. "Oh, hi, Jayne. I'm just having a ruttin' horrible week." Her eyes looked sad. "Simon's been ignorin' me again, my music player's busted _again_ and I can't seem to get her to work and…" her eyes were a little moist at this point. "And?" Jayne sat down next to her on the cold floor of the bay.

"And…well…it seems like it's been two fella's that have been too busy for me lately." She looked down at her book, her cheeks getting a bit pink. Jayne sussed out very quickly what she meant.

"Well, uh…Kaylee…I'm…well…" He couldn't figure out what exactly it was that she wanted him to say or do. She sighed. "It's okay, Jayne. I know you're busy and all, what with…work and such." She got up from the floor and walked off up the stairs, leaving Jayne sitting there, dumbfounded as to what to do.

*

They landed on Persephone a few hours later. Kaylee was now sitting in her bunk with the hatch closed. She didn't want to go outside or see anybody. When she had the blues, she liked to be alone, which was probably why everyone thought she was all sweetness and light all the time.

Suddenly there was a great banging on her hatch. Kaylee walked to the bottom of the ladder and looked up. "Hello?"

"Kaylee?" Jayne's voice.

"Yeah, Jayne?"

She could see him pressing his face against the grating in the door. "You gotta come quick!"

He swung the hatch open, making a loud clanging sound when it slammed against the top of the frame. "C'mon, girl, we don't have much time!" Kaylee quickly slid her feet into her boots. She started climbing the ladder and Jayne pulled her the rest of the way up when she was on about the third rung.

"We gotta dash, c'mon!" He held her hand and pulled her along, down the stairs, out of the bay door, out into the dusty air of the Eavesdown Docks.

"Jayne, wha-" Kaylee began, but Jayne cut her off. "Don't worry, we're almost there!" She was starting to worry. Jayne seemed awful worked up about wherever it was that they were going. But then they rounded a corner and another corner and Kaylee realized that they were approaching the nicer, historic district of the city.

At last Jayne stopped, in front of a dusty looking pub, _Proserpina Brewery_. They went in through the dark front door, passing a few sulky looking old men at the bar. Then they passed through another door and "Oh!" Kaylee breathed.

There was a veranda behind the bar, surrounded by the backs and sides of brick buildings. There was a small lawn behind the veranda, which was framed by two smallish oak trees. There were fairy lights strung between these. It was late in the afternoon and the courtyard was beginning to get dusky and these glowed in the fading light.

"Heard tell there was a man, gonna come here later tonight and play the cello with his friend, who's gonna play the piano." Kaylee looked at him. "Would you like to accomp'ny me?"

"You askin' me on a real date, Jayne?" Kaylee felt her face flush a little.


End file.
